Scandinavian people gradually moved down from the north.
They settled between the Elbe and Oder Rivers and started farming and raising
animals. The Oder is the present eastern border of Germany with Poland,
and the Elbe is farther west. Check this map
for the area.

100 BC

By now, there were four million people in the area. Land
was hard to find so many tribes moved away. The Visigoths went to Spain,
the Vandals to North Africa, and the Angles and Saxons to England. Others
like the Teutons and Cimbri were wiped out.

12 BC - 16 AD

The Roman Legions tried to take over Germany but failed,
except for a small part of southwest Germany. Most of the area to the west
became part of the Roman Empire, but the Germanic tribes of central Europe
were not conquered and kept their own culture.

200 - 300 AD

A tribe known as the Franks appeared in the northwest, in
the lower and middle Rhine River valleys.

481-511 AD

A Frankish king named Clovis established the first Merovignian
dynasty. Before long this empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to Bavaria
in the south and Thuringia in the east. (You can see where this is on an
1871
map of Germany.) Clovis converted to Christianity and sponsored missionaries
in the east.

768 AD

A royal official of the Merovignian dynasty, Charles Martel
better known as Charlemagne, came to power and established a new line of
Frankish kings.

800 AD

Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope and became emperor of
a revived Roman Empire. It stretched to include parts of Italy and Spain.

814 AD

Charlemagne died and civil wars broke out.

870 AD

Two Frankish kingdoms were created, one to the West (now
France) and one to the east (Germany).

900 - 1500 AD

Germany was mostly broken up into smaller areas and ruled by princes
and feudal lords. For almost all the time between 1438 and 1806, the Hapsburg
dynasty ruled the Holy Roman Empire (or First Reich). It was dissolved
in 1806.

1517

Martin Luther began a revolution known as the Reformation,
protesting against the Catholic church. The growth of the Protestant church
eventually changed Germany in a big way. The ruling family, the Hapsburgs,
were Catholic.

1618-1648

The Thirty Years War was the result of all the conflicts
over religion. Germany was still divided into small states.

1786

Prussia and Austria were the major German states.

1789-1813

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars led to Germany
being conquered by Napoleon. (The Holy Roman Empire had been dissolved in
1806.)

1813

Germany was again free and a treaty gave power back to the
princes, creating a loose group of about three dozen states. There were
many more attempts to make Germany one state.

1862

Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia, led another unification
move, which ended in 1871 when Kaiser Wilhelm I being crowned king of the
new German Reich ('empire'). Bismarck's government created a parliament
called the Reichstag elected by the people, but the king and his advisors
kept most of the power. As the most important advisor, Bismarck manipulated
political parties and managed foreign policy.

1870-1910

Steel production, industrial efforts, science and technology
and a good university system were all part of this time of great growth
in Germany. Writer Thomas Mann, composers Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss,
and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche helped maintain Germany's reputation
as a major cultural center.

Kaiser Wilhelm II forced the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, to
retire. The Kaiser took over more control of the government, but caused
bad feelings between Germany and other countries like Austria, Russia and
England.

1914

Kaiser Wilhelm II helped to start World War I.

1918

Tired of war and ready for change, the German people took
over the government. A people's republic was created, the war was ended
and the Kaiser was exiled to The Netherlands.

1919

The Treaty of Versailles was signed, which took away much
of Germany's land, people and natural resources and forced Germany to pay
lots of money to those countries it had fought against. The German economy
was a disaster and there was much unrest among its people.

1920s

The German economy revived and culture flourished.

1930s

The Depression threw Germany into chaos again.

1932

Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party took power. The Nazis were
very patriotic and seemed to have answers to social and economic problems.
Hitler rapidly formed a dictatorship called the Third Reich (the first
two 'Reichs' were the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire set up by
Bismarck).

Hitler's government produced a remarkable recovery of the German economy.
Propaganda portrayed the Nazis as heros, yet the Nazi party was extremely
racist. With a ruthless secret police called the Gestapo and horrible
prisons called concentration camps, the Nazis were trying to get rid of
all Jewish people in Germany.

Sept. 1, 1939

Hitler invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war
on Germany.

1941-1945

The United States entered World War II on the side of the
Allies (mainly Britain, France and Russia). Japan and Italy were allies
of Germany. When the war ended in 1945, Germany was largely in ruins.

1945-1949

Most of eastern Germany was given to Poland and the USSR.
The remainder was divided into four zones: Russian, British, French and
American. The capital, Berlin, was divided up the same way.

1949

During the 'Cold War' the British, French and American parts of Germany
were combined into the Federal Republic of Germany which became known
as West Germany. The Russian part became the German Democratic Republic
(GDR), known as East Germany. Berlin was divided into West Berlin and
East Berlin.

1949-1963

West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer allied his country
with the west, and avoided any connections with East Germany, the USSR and
other Eastern countries. His conservative government also brought about
tremendous economic recovery. Ten million German refugees returned to their
homeland.

1969

The Social Democratic Party gained power, and Willy Brandt
became Chancellor. With his Ostpolitik (literally 'east politics') or policy
towards West Germany's eastern neighbors, he improved relations with East
Germany and other eastern countries.

1970-present

Germany's economy has been booming. They have won acceptance
as a leading partner in the European Union and the Western Alliance. Parliamentary
democracy has led to more freedom and renewed creativity in the arts.

1949-1989

While West Germany was recovering from World War II economically
and socially, the Communist government in East Germany was very repressive.
Soviet troops occupied the country. Economic and living conditions were
horrible.

1961

Conditions in East Germany (GDR) were so awful that hundreds
of thousands of the best workers were fleeing to West Germany for better
jobs and living conditions. East German dictator Walter Ulbricht had the
Berlin Wall erected to keep people from leaving, and armed guards were posted.
In all, about 300 people lost their lives trying to flee East Germany over
the Berlin Wall. Here's a picture
of memorial crosses for them.

1989

In 1989 there were reforms in Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union which
encouraged more than 200,000 East Germans to leave their country and travel
to West Germany through Czechoslovakia and Hungary. In East Germany there
were many demonstrations by people demanding reforms. When the Soviet
Union stopped supporting the East German government, it collapsed.

This painting by Birgit Kinder became a well-known symbol
of the end of the Berlin Wall. It's an East German car, called a Trabant
(or Trabi), breaking through to the West, and its license plate shows
the date the wall began to come down.

Here's a view of the celebration
when the Wall was opened and people could cross freely into West Berlin.

Oct. 3, 1990

East Germany and West Germany were unified under the West German constitution.
For the first time since 1933, the German people lived together in freedom
and unity.

Although the East German economy was in terrible shape, the West German
economy was booming. Much progress has been made towards making things
equal across the country.